Millet Vinegar Museum in China by Zhanghua Studio

Museums have some of the most beautiful architecture in the world – think the Louvre, the Tate Modern, the Guggenheim, and the Museum of Qatar to name a mere few. A vinegar museum wouldn’t typically spring to mind up against those that house precious art and ancient artefacts, however, Zhanghua Studio have created something quite compelling.

Built on the site of a former rice vinegar brewery, the Millet Vinegar Museum in Zibo, China takes inspiration from the shape of the traditional jars, cans, and containers used to hold the astringent condiment. The architects intended to emulate a geological fault section through the raw textured exterior facades.

Made from concrete slabs comprised of waste materials, at first glance the facades make the building appear as if grew straight from the earth. Up close, the slabs are each a unique, abstract shape, tessellating together using the Ammann tiling method. Mosaic tiled sections express the vitality of nature, with cracks and lines embodying cracked soil, the veins on the leaf of a plant, and the surfaces of Chinese porcelain vessels.

Various round shapes are carved out of the exterior facades, some remaining as simply indents, and others puncturing through to form windows. Internally, the main light source filters through the top of an urn-shaped dome clad with overlapping brick masonry. Throughout the day, the sunlight casts shadows across the brick in the shape of various vinegar urns.

The dome motif continues with the entrances and windows of the building, the most prominent ones being arch-shaped. An otherwise angular, elongated cube, Zhanghua Studio implemented a fluidity of form that speaks to the history of the site, and that is honoured within the museum.